With the launching of the US-backed military intervention in Yemen, virtually the entire Middle East is engulfed by military conflict, a state of affairs that has no precedent, with the possible exception of the two world wars fought in the 20th century. Washington’s pursuit of policies from one conflict to the next that are seemingly at odds with one another has provoked mounting expressions of concern from major US think tanks and editorial boards—not to mention nominal allies in Europe—over “strategic incoherence.” To describe as glaring the contradictions that riddle US foreign policy in the Middle East does not do...

The commander of the Basij militia of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that “erasing Israel off the map” is “nonnegotiable,” according to an Israel Radio report Tuesday. Militia chief Mohammad Reza Naqdi also threatened Saudi Arabia, saying that the offensive it is leading in Yemen “will have a fate like the fate of Saddam Hussein.” Naqdi’s comments were made public as Iran and six world powers prepared Tuesday to issue a general statement agreeing to continue nuclear negotiations in a new phase aimed at reaching a comprehensive accord by the end of June.

Juan Williams: Boehnerâ€™s Trip to Israel is RacistPosted By Daniel Greenfield On March 31, 2015 @ 1:03 am In The Point | No Comments â€śSomething something racist.â€ť A Democratic argument from 2008 to 2016.Juan Williams is back and he wants you to know that Boehnerâ€™s trip to Israel is racist. Also all trips are racist. And all planes. Especially white planes. The real issue here is the way Boehner is recklessly sowing division along party lines on Israel. He is also Â— intentionally or not Â— heightening the silent but simmering racial tensions that increasingly divide Americans on the subject.The...

On the brink of a new Middle Eastern catastrophe: Saudi Arabia sends war planes into Yemen in a terrifying clash with Iran leaving region at boiling point Religious fissure between Sunni and Shia Muslims erupted into conflict Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels 18 civilians were injured after Saudi warplanes targeted Sana’a in Yemen Britain and America supported the Saudi-led military intervention Coalition deployed 100 fighter jets and 150,000 soldiers to fight in region Truly, it is a terrifying development. The great religious fissure between Sunni and Shia Muslims that dominates the Middle East has erupted into...

Dr. Mahmoud Zaini, former member of the Makkah Literary Club, said the Yemeni campaign came to ward off dangers not only to Yemen but to the Gulf region as a whole, and whose leaders felt posed a direct threat to their security and stability. The operation has stopped the situation in Yemen from deteriorating further and will accelerate the political process in the country as demonstrated by deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh who called for a political solution to the Yemeni crisis promising that he would not run for presidential elections, Zaini said. For his part, Awadh Al-Jimaie, professor of...

CAIRO — As America talks to Iran, Saudi Arabia is lashing out against it. The kingdom, Iran’s chief regional rival, is leading airstrikes against an Iranian-backed faction in Yemen; backing a blitz in Idlib, Syria, by jihadists fighting the Iranian-backed Assad regime; and warning Washington not to allow the Iranian-backed militia to capture too much of Iraq during the fight to roll back the Islamic State, according to Arab diplomats familiar with the talks. Through Egypt, a major beneficiary of Saudi aid, the kingdom is backing plans for a combined Arab military force to combat Iranian influence around the region....

Iran called for political talks between all parties in Yemen as the Saudi-led coalition on Tuesday extended its campaign of airstrikes against Houthi militants in provinces across the country. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said intervention in Yemen wouldn’t solve the country’s problems and that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies “were putting themselves in a very difficult position” by launching airstrikes. “We believe that the situation in Yemen should be resolved through political means only,” he said in a Monday interview with the Russian state-run news channel Russia Today, the first such Iranian comments since Saudi Arabia began...

The US-led world powers and Iran Monday, March 30, entered the last tense hours for a nuclear deal as though Lausanne was on a different planet from the Middle East, where the Yemen war, in which Iran is deeply involved, abruptly scooped up a power outside the region, Pakistan. A high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad on Monday reaffirmed Pakistan’s “firm commitment to supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia.” Among those attending were Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif, Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Defense Minister...

Shiite Saudi researcher Ali Al-Ahmed, director of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs said in a March 26 interview with the Iranian English-language TV channel Press TV that the Saudi campaign against the Houthis in Yemen may bring the rule of the royal Saudi family to an end. He also said that the US will lose influence in Yemen following its "miscalculation" of supporting the Saudi campaign. Following are excerpts: Ali Al-Ahmed: The Saudis and their allies have a huge battle on their hands. They have entered the hornet's nest. In fact, the founder of Saudi Arabia warned his children...

Plunging oil prices have been an economic windfall for U.S. consumers, primarily through greater savings at the pump. In energy-reliant countries around the world like Angola, however, the effect has been far less beneficial. Social and economic turmoil in countries like Venezuela and Russia—largely because of the swoon in global oil prices—has drawn attention away from Angola, an OPEC member that is Africa's second-largest oil producer. The country churns out 1.75 million barrels of oil per day, according to the Energy Information Agency (EIA). The sub-Saharan country is hugely dependent on oil production to generate revenue for its economy, which...

The Saudi kingdom long was Yemen’s largest benefactor and held sway over powerful Yemeni tribal leaders. Yet following Saleh’s resignation in November 2011, Iran swiftly worked to increase its influence in Yemen by creating ties with whomever shared a common disdain for Saudi Arabia, including liberal anti-Saleh activists. The Houthi rebels, an oft-ignored militia from Yemen’s far north, were an obvious ally for Iran. Houthi fighters, who follow a sect of Shi’ite Islam known as Zaydism, consolidated power in the wake of the 2011 government collapse. They are staunchly anti-Saudi. They believe that the Kingdom was involved in the systematic...

The Middle East witnessed something radically new two days ago, when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia responded to a plea by Yemen's president and led a 10-country coalition to intervene in the air and on the ground in the country. "Operation Decisive Storm" prompts many reflections: Saudi and Egypt in alliance: Half a century ago, Riyadh and Cairo were active in a Yemen war, but then they supported opposing sides, respectively the status-quo forces and the revolutionaries. Their now being allies points to continuity in Saudia along with profound changes in Egypt. Arabic-speakers getting their act together: Through Israel's early...

If there was any remaining doubt at all about who’s side Obama is on, this should eliminate it. An Iranian journalist who previously managed Hassan Rouhani’s public relations defected to the West during the nuclear talks in Lausanne, Switzerland. Amir Hossein Motaghi: “The US negotiating team R mainly there to speak on Iran’s behalf" http://t.co/BkOlJvl8GI— Haya Eytan (@TeachESL) March 29, 2015 Amir Hossein Motaghi was an editor for the Iran Student Correspondents Association. To remove any patina of a “free press” (if anyone may still believe Iran’s press is free) in Iran, Motaghi said, “There are a number of people attending on the...

AMMAN, JORDAN – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and a delegation of senior lawmakers met with His Majesty King Abdullah II on Sunday during a visit to Jordan where talks focused on Iranian-backed violence in the region and the growing terrorist threat. King Abdullah hosted the delegation for a luncheon at Beit al-Urdun Palace. Lawmakers also met with U.S. Ambassador Alice Wells, Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s Foreign Minister, as well as senior embassy officials. Discussions focused on two major trends in the region: the violence caused by Iran’s allies and proxies, and the spreading of the terrorist threat. There was also...

CAIRO — The Arab states said on Sunday that they had agreed to form a combined military force to counter both Iranian influence and Islamist extremism, a gesture many analysts attributed in large part to their drive for more independence from Washington. The agreement came as American and other Western diplomats in Lausanne, Switzerland, were racing to beat a self-imposed deadline of Tuesday to reach a deal with Iran that would restrict its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of economic sanctions. In response, Saudi Arabia and other American allies in the region have made clear that they are...

One wonders if U.S. President Barack Obama will campaign as vigorously to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper this fall, as he did, unsuccessfully, to defeat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in that country’s recent election. It’s no secret Obama despises Netanyahu, who heads Israel’s right-wing Likud party and favoured Mitt Romney over Obama in the 2012 presidential race. The U.S. president has also talked since the beginning of his administration about the need to “put some daylight” between the U.S. and Israel, so he would have more influence with Arab and Muslim countries in his pursuit of an Israel-Palestine peace...

Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. In a rare move, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that a letter from Putin would be read out to the gathering in Egypt, where Arab leaders discussed an array of regional crises, including conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya. "We support the Arabs' aspirations for a prosperous future and for the resolution of all the problems the Arab world faces through peaceful means, without any...

The former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency on Sunday described President Obama's Middle East policy as one of "willful ignorance," saying the administration needs a clearer strategy for dealing with conflicts emerging across the region. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said during an interview on "Fox News Sunday" that recent developments in the Middle East are moving in a bad direction for the United States, with Iran "clearly on the march" to influence events in a "regional sectarian war." “At the end of the day, we have just this incredible policy confusion — never mind what our strategy is to...

A close media aide to Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, has sought political asylum in Switzerland after travelling to Lausanne to cover the nuclear talks between Tehran and the West. Amir Hossein Motaghi, who managed public relations for Mr Rouhani during his 2013 election campaign, was said by Iranian news agencies to have quit his job at the Iran Student Correspondents Association (ISCA). He then appeared on an opposition television channel based in London to say he no longer saw any “sense” in his profession as a journalist as he could only write what he was told. “There are a...

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry cancelled plans to fly to Boston for a ceremony in honour of his late friend Edward Kennedy as talks on Iran's nuclear programme intensified in Switzerland, with two days left to a deadline. Kerry's spokeswoman said on Sunday he regretted missing the dedication ceremony for an institute named after the U.S. senator, who was a mentor to him. Officials close to the talks said the French and German foreign ministers, Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, were considering delaying a planned joint trip to Kazakhstan in order to focus on clearing...

Obama’s race to chaos By Michael Goodwin If you’re confused about the Saudi Arabia-led air attacks against Islamist rebels in Yemen and can’t tell one group of head-choppers in Iraq and Syria from another, don’t despair. All you need is imagination. Close your eyes and imagine that those countries and terrorists have nuclear weapons. Imagine their barbarism going nuclear as they blow up cities, wipe out ethnic and religious groups and turn the region into cinders. Now open your eyes and realize you’ve seen the future, thanks to President Obama’s policies. It is a future that will be defined by...

PM warns of ‘Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis'; officials say Tehran has agreed to ship out all enriched uranium to Russia Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday against the emerging nuclear deal with Iran, as Iranian and Western officials in Lausanne, Switzerland were rushing to reach a framework agreement by an end-of-month deadline. “After the Beirut-Damascus-Baghdad axis, Iran is maneuvering from the south to take over the entire Middle East,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting, one of the last for his outgoing government. “The Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis is dangerous for mankind and must be stopped.” Netanyahu told ministers that he had spoken with...

(Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused Iran on Thursday of trying to dominate the Middle East and said its efforts have begun annoying Ankara, as well as Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab countries. Turkey earlier said it supports the Saudi-led military operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen and called on the militia group and its "foreign supporters" to abandon acts which threaten peace and security in the region. "Iran is trying to dominate the region," said Erdogan, who is due to visit Tehran in early April. "Could this be allowed? This has begun annoying us, Saudi Arabia and the...

An Iranian journalist who defected from his country while covering its ongoing nuclear talks has revealed startling information regarding America’s position at the negotiating table. Amir Hossein Motaghi, who reportedly was employed at Iran’s state-run Iran Student Correspondents Association, told a London-based Iranian opposition channel that the U.S. was shilling for Iran in the ongoing negotiations over the regime’s nuclear weapons program. “The US negotiating team are mainly there to speak on Iran’s behalf with other members of the 5+1 countries and convince them of a deal,” Mottaghi told Irane Farda, according to UK’s The Telegraph. Motaghi had previously worked...

A close media aide to Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, has sought political asylum in Switzerland after travelling to Lausanne to cover the nuclear talks between Tehran and the West. Amir Hossein Motaghi, who managed public relations for Mr Rouhani during his 2013 election campaign, was said by Iranian news agencies to have quit his job at the Iran Student Correspondents Association (ISCA). He then appeared on an opposition television channel based in London to say he no longer saw any “sense” in his profession as a journalist as he could only write what he was told. “There are a...

Claim White House ignoring human rights, working with murderous regime A group of Iranian dissidents and political prisoners have lashed out at the Obama administration, lambasting its ongoing diplomacy with Iran, according to two open letters sent to the White House in recent days. In each letter, the dissidents—most of whom are currently political prisoners in Iran—criticize the White House for ignoring the issues of human rights and democracy in Iran as they push to finalize a deal with a regime that the dissidents says is murderous and untrustworthy. Iranian reformers and those seeking a change in the country’s leadership...

Brave guy. The entire leftist world will be out to assassinate him. An aide working for the Nuclear Negotiation team has defected in Switzerland. The aide immediately tells the authorities about his direct knowledge that Secretary Kerry and the U.S. Negotiation team are actually working to assist Iran. I’ll bet you a donut this was the substance of the courier letter from Rouhani to Obama yesterday. WH says Pres Obama has received contents of letter from Iran Pres Rouhani., but WH choosing not to disclose contents or response.

A media aide to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani covering the P5+1 nuclear talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, is seeking asylum in the West and has blasted the U.S. negotiating team as apologists for Iran, reports the Telegraph

An Iranian journalist writing about the nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran has defected. In an interview Amir Hossein Motaghi, has some harsh words for his native Iran. He also has a damning indictment of America's role in the nuclear negotiations. “The U.S. negotiating team are mainly there to speak on Iran’s behalf with other members of the 5+1 countries and convince them of a deal," Motaghi told a TV station after just defecting from the Iranian delegation while abroad for the nuclear talks. The P 5 + 1 is made up of United States, United Kingdom, Russia,...

PM Netanyahu at Cabinet: I just met US Senate Republican leader McConnell. Over the weekend I spoke with US Senate Democratic leader Reid. » I heard from both of them about strong and continuing bipartisan support for Israel and of course this is very important. » I expressed our concern over the agreement formulated with Iran in the nuclear talks, which appears to confirm all of our concerns and more» Even as meetings proceed on this dangerous agreement, Iran's proxies in Yemen are overrunning large sections of that country, » and are attempting to seize control of the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb...

Q: Why is Yemen important to the world oil market? Yemen is only a small oil producer, but it lies at the heart of some of the most important energy routes. It shares a long border with southwest Saudi Arabia, world’s top oil exporter, and is adjacent to the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the fourth-biggest shipping chokepoint in the world by volume. About 3.8 million barrels a day of petroleum passed through the strait in 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Closing the strait could keep tankers in the Persian Gulf from reaching the Suez Canal and the SUMED...

Foreign ministers from 22 Arab countries agreed to form a unified military force on Thursday, approving a draft resolution designed to counter growing security threats in the region. "The Arab ... ministers agreed on adopting an important principle, which is forming the unified Arab military force. The task of the force will be rapid military intervention to deal with security threats to Arab nations," Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby told reporters after the meeting, Reuters reported. The agreement, which Elaraby described as “historic,” came shortly after airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia and its Arab...

As airstrikes and ground battles continued across Yemen on Saturday, defiant words were uttered by regional leaders at an Arab summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik.Ousted Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi said Saudi Arabia-led airstrikes must continue until Shiite Muslim Houthi militants, who drove him from power, agree to surrender. He branded the Houthis as “stooges of Iran” and directly blamed the Islamic Republic for creating chaos in Yemen and forcing him to flee.

Honestly, I think it is now only conjecture to say that World War III is not underway. Just as the world didn't recognize the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand as the beginning of World War I, so the world didn't immediately recognize the invasions of Austria and Poland as the beginnings of World War II. The tumultuous uprisings in the Arab world that began in 2010 have only grown more tumultuous until now. I believe the massive Arab coalition invasion of Yemen may later be seen as the beginning of World War III. The wars and rumors of wars all across...

... From the center of the article ... "Yemen does have value as a lesson -- this is what happens when you ignore the basic foundations of social stability. These include legitimate leadership with stable succession plans; a united elite; institutions to bridge regional and ethnic divisions and assure fairness in political and economic access and a functioning economy with capabilities for providing employment and growth."

The first 6 Arab nations to form the Arab League are: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria are no more. Egypt was almost lost, and is well into it's recovery from intensive care thanks largely to Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who might become the most accomplished of Arab Leaders, if he holds true. I believe El-Sisi was the impetus of the Arab League getting it's act together with coordinated political, diplomatic and military efforts to keep Iran off the Sinai Peninsula. Is their any doubt now why any sane person would deny a nuclear armed...

Here is Marcia Freedman, in a J-Street panel discussion on Liberal Zionism and sitting next to Peter Beinart, describing how she believes that the Jewish people should not have a state, and that instead they should live as a minority in an Arab Palestine as a “protected minority” – in other words, as dhimmis. I kept all the context (although I accidentally cut out the applause at the end:) Isn’t it interesting that at a conference that claims to be “pro-Israel, pro-peace” and that hammers away at how it wants a two state solution, there is no objection to this...

As Tehran hails ‘massive progress’ in talks, Jerusalem protests that regime ‘is working against American-Arab-Israeli interests without paying a price’ As Iran hailed “massive progress” toward a deal on its nuclear program, an Israeli official described the terms of the looming agreement as “incomprehensibly” bad and rejected the Obama administration’s contention that it would keep the regime a year away from accumulating enough fissile material for a bomb. Estimating that a framework deal would indeed be signed soon, and that a full agreement would follow in June, the official lamented the US-led negotiators’ apparent readiness to remove sanctions without Iran...

Hezbollah leader slams Saudi campaign: ‘You say the new situation threatens you… Do you not feel the threat posed by Israel?’ Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday bemoaned the Saudi-led Arab coalition engaged in a campaign against rebels forces in Yemen, saying Arabs should unite against Israel rather than the Houthi militias who have taken over the capital Sanaa and much of the country over the past months. The leader of Lebanon’s Shiite terror group slammed Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen, dubbed Operation Decisive Storm, calling it “surprising and painful.” Hezbollah, like Yemen’s Houthi rebels, is supported by Iran, which...

Two Saudi pilots ejected over the Red Sea on Friday after their fighter plane suffered a technical problem and were rescued with US assistance, state media said. "A plane of the F-15S type was stricken by a technical fault yesterday evening over the Red Sea and the two pilots were forced to use their rescue seats," state news agency SPA quoted a defense ministry official saying.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday deployed its vast array of fighter jets to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen, in an offensive known as “Operation Decisive Storm.” The three primary jet fighters used in the offensive are European-made Eurofighter Typhoons, U.S.-made F-15s, and UK-made Tornados. Introduced in 1988, The F-15 has been deployed for military operations in much of the Middle East, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. Saudi’s air force has the largest fleet of F-15 fighters after the U.S. and Japan, with a stock of 152 of the Strike Eagle variant. In 2009, Saudi air force F-15s, along with Tornados, bombed...

The U.S. Air Force and Navy rescued two Saudi pilots Friday after they ejected from their F-15 fighter over the Gulf of Aden during combat operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Saudi jet apparently suffered some mechanical problem forcing the pilots to eject. A U.S. Air Force Pave Hawk special operations helicopter and crew were dispatched from Djibouti to rescue the Saudi pilots.

Friday on MSNBC’s “NewsNation,” NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel said many in the military and policy analysts have told him the Obama administration’s Middle East policies are “incoherent.”

Remember back in the Spring of '09, when a fresh-faced 'historic president' Obama told a cheering crowd one sunny day at Prague Castle that he'll work towards a world 'free of nuclear weapons'? In retrospect, it seems he meant a world just free of American nuclear weapons- as he's been slashing all our capabilities, development programs, and even defensive missile shields to appease enemies -primarily Russia- in order to free up more money for solar panels and food stamps. The Norks sure didn't get the memo... nor the Russians, or anybody else- as they've been building and testing whatever-they-damnwell-please the whole time....

Yemen's beleaguered government said Saudi-led airstrikes against its Houthi militia opponents would not last long on the second day of a Gulf Arab-led campaign against the Iranian-allied militia that could escalate a proxy conflict spreading through the region. Warplanes targeted Houthi forces controlling Yemen's capital and their northern heartland on Friday and, in a boost for Riyadh, fellow monarchy Morocco said it would join the rapidly-assembled Sunni Muslim coalition against the Shi'ite Muslim group. Tribes in Yemen's oil producing Marib region said they supported the air campaign, but Houthi forces advanced south despite the airstrikes and Pakistan, named by Saudi...

“The Chinese side has noticed that (Saudi Arabia has launched airstrikes against Yemen) and is deeply worried about the situation in Yemen that is getting worse,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, said at a weekly press briefing on Thursday. Expressing hope that the crisis could be resolved “through political dialogues”, Hua said, “We hope that all parties will act in accordance with relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council… and restore national stability and order at an early date.” Saudi-led attacks: widely condemned The Saudi invasion of Yemen drew condemnation from Iran, Russia, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, Syria,...

The first clues appeared in Kenya, Uganda and what is now South Sudan. A British arms researcher surveying ammunition used by government forces and civilian militias in 2006 found Kalashnikov rifle cartridges he had not seen before. The ammunition bore no factory code, suggesting that its manufacturer hoped to avoid detection. Within two years other researchers were finding identical cartridges circulating through the ethnic violence in Darfur. Similar ammunition then turned up in 2009 in a stadium in Conakry, Guinea, where soldiers had fired on antigovernment protesters, killing more than 150. For six years, a group of independent arms-trafficking researchers...

JUBA — 3 July, 2013 … The Washington-based think-tank The International Strategic Studies Association has devoted the latest issue of Global Information System (GIS) Special Analysis, a confidential newsletter used by the Western governments and select subscribers, to the latest Sudanese-Iranian designs for the entire west Africa. “The governments of Iran and Sudan are preparing for a major strategic surge into western Africa, into both the Sahel and the shores of the Gulf of Guinea,” the report warns. “The ultimate objective of this surge is to consolidate control and/or influence over this extensive region and its considerable oil, gas, uranium,...